BIRMINGHAM NEWS (Alabama) 23 January 06 'The salamanders are migrating, the salamanders are migrating' Salamander watchers heed call of the wild (Patrick Hickerson)
Minutes after midnight Saturday, Ken Wills parked his sport-utility vehicle in a Homewood High School parking lot, pulled on a poncho, clicked on a flashlight and started down a dark stretch of South Lakeshore Drive looking for salamanders.
He had gotten the call - the salamander call.
"I just laid down to bed, so it was excellent timing," Wills said.
Dozens of people, methodically alerted by the Friends of Shades Creek, ventured to South Lakeshore Drive to watch the first wave in the annual migration of the spotted salamander down Shades Mountain.
The migration has absolutes: It will be wet, and it will be dark.
The nocturnal salamanders usually surface during a warm rain after a stretch of cold weather. They slither down to temporary pools to mate and lay eggs.
For hours people decked in rain gear walked along South Lakeshore Drive, sweeping their flashlight beams across the two-lane road like homicide detectives looking for a shell casing.
Those who stayed for hours counted about 10 salamanders.
Caitlin Creed, a senior at Homewood High School, pointed to one 6-inch salamander with a dark blue skin that sported just a few yellow spots.
"I found another one earlier that had more spots," she said.
Bill Mathews, Samford University vice president for business affairs, is a veteran of four migrations. Mathews said he hopes one day to record video of the salamander's mating dance, which is supposed to be elaborate. He has still photos.
"They didn't go out for a swimming jaunt," Mathews said.
A study done last year by a Birmingham-Southern University student counted 34 salamanders, which is considered a portion of the total population. The migration also comes in waves.
Henry Hughes, Friends of Shades Creek executive director, said the migration also calls attention to the salamander's home in the Homewood Forest Preserve, which is city-owned land that stretches up Shades Mountain.
The migration began a week before Homewood's Salamander Festival, scheduled for 4-7:30 p.m. Saturday in the new city hall in Soho Square.
"San Juan Capistrano has its sparrows," said Brad Creed, Caitlin's father. "We have our salamanders."
Those who come out asked to be paged about the migration, which has taken place as early as 9 p.m. and as late as 3 a.m. Michelle Blackwood, Friends of Shades Creek president, keeps the numbers with her at all times during the migratory months of January and February.
Hughes still has his 2005 notice on his answering machine that came from another salamander follower.
"It says, `The salamanders are migrating. The salamanders are migrating,'" Hughes said. "I couldn't erase it."
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HUNTSVILLE TIMES (Alabama) 23 January 06 Shy spotted salamander expected to appear soon (Brenda Cummings)
Here in mid-winter, a hot July hike comes to mind. Every plant was leafy, the power line easement almost impassable. The Moist Riparian Forest portion of the Homewood Forest Preserve was not moist.
This is the area preferred by the spotted salamander. It is one of the mole type salamanders that prefer to be underground in the coldest and hottest weather. So they were underground the day of our hike. Our guide, Carl Sloan, pointed out one of the ponds where they would lay their eggs in late January or February, at the time of the first heavy rain when the temperature is above 40 degrees.
The people of Homewood hope the publicity surrounding the migration of these salamanders will draw attention to the other inhabitants of this natural preserve and make development there less likely.
Located across Lakeshore Drive from Samford University adjacent to Homewood High School, the property once belonged to the university, and was the site of a nature trail. Through land swaps and sales, the city became owner to 66 acres on the slope of Shades Mountain.
The preserve includes three major habitats: dry upland forest, steep sloped forest and moist riparian forest. A mountain top trail leads across the upland forest; to get there, be prepared to climb the steep slopes of the inner area of the preserve. They are steep indeed, and trees as high as 100 feet grow there. Throughout the forest grow oaks, hickories, pines, beeches, sweet gums, sugar maples and one of the state's largest hop-hornbeam trees. A rather rare white ash is said to grow there, too.
Some of the smallest growths were most interesting to me: mushrooms. We saw orange ones of three different shades and varieties, yellow mushrooms, scarlet ones and white ones. We saw one that looked like a little pizza. Sloan explained that unlike most mushrooms with gills underneath their umbrellas, this particular kind of mushroom has interior spores. The study of fungi has a name, you know; mycology will be a fascinating new subject for me.
Resting on a stump near the old Samford University amphitheater, and near a bottlebrush bush, I learned that the wings of a damsel fly extend upward from the body, and those of the dragon fly go down. Birds and other forest creatures make their home in the Homewood Preserve, too.
But back to the spotted salamander for which the preserve is noted. Adults are 4 - 6 inches long, with brown or grayish tummies and dark backs. On their backs are bright yellow spots. The spots serve a dual purpose: they make an excellent camouflage and the color indicates to predators to beware of poison.
Now the salamanders don't live in the water. The live some distance away, under leaves in the woods. It's in mating season that they travel to the pond. At the first warm rain of the season, individual salamanders head toward the pond in the downpour, the female bulging with eggs. They go to the leaves on the floor of the pond where a male drops sperm which is picked up by a following female. After laying the fertilized eggs, the salamanders will leave the pond in the next downpour, and go back to the woods. In a few weeks the eggs will hatch, and the tiny salamanders will make their way into the woods, too. Observation of the migration of the adults to the pond has become an annual event for the salamander watchers of the area.
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